Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), acting through its Missiles Systems business, and Chemring have agreed to develop a naval capability to defend against surface targets, for use on ships ranging in size from small patrol boats to large combatants. A briefing was being held Tuesday at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference, IDEX 2013, to discuss the development.

Currently in the integration engineering phase, live-fire testing of the new mission defense system is scheduled for mid-2013. Testing is expected to include at least two different missiles in order to establish a multi-mission capacity against maneuvering surface threats such as fast inshore attack craft.

Low Cost Anti-Surface Weapon System
The solution to counter fast inshore attack craft consists of a variety of Raytheon missiles with ranges matched to the intended target. The missiles will be fired from the Chemring CENTURION launcher, with initial target detection, tracking and identification provided by the ship's sensors.

"Our shared goal is to generate a low-cost, effective and versatile solution to increase naval platform protection," said Mark Papworth, chief executive of Chemring Group. "Thanks to a layered-defense approach capitalizing on the versatility of the CENTURION launcher and Raytheon's missiles, users will have a multi-mission capability using a single-launch platform."